Chocolate Replicas of Buildings and Landmarks

I saw this story about a father/daughter team in the UK that are making chocolate replicas of buildings and other landmarks. Their work is incredible.

Pictured: The intricate chocolate replicas of British landmarks and celebrity homes

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 5:41 PM on 24th July 2008

It's the perfect gift for the person who has everything - an edible replica of their home. But at £2,000 each they'll set you back a bit more than your average box of chocolates.

The intricate creations are being snapped up by the rich and famous with Prince Charles, Sting and Nicolas Cage among those who have commissioned carvings.

Chocolate artists Flo Broughton and her father Kerr Dunlop created this 'edible sculpture' of Highbury for Prince Charles. Prince Charles was so impressed with the replica he now sells them at The Highgrove Shop.


The replicas made by Father and daughter chocolatiers Kerr Dunlop and Flo Broughton , measure around 20cm x 10cm and take three weeks to make using intricate moulds. The pair spent five years perfecting their technique for making the 'edible architecture', which has also been used to recreate British landmarks.

Flo Broughton, and father Kerr Dunlop, spent five years perfecting a technique for the chocolate architecture. Now they have released pictures of their work for the first time, including the sculpture of Prince Charles' Highgrove country estate in Gloucestershire.

They also show Midford Castle near Bath, Somerset - recently bought by Nicholas Cage - and Stings's Lake House mansion at Wilsford-cum-Lake in Wiltshire.

Retired inventor Kerr, 64, said: 'It's very difficult to make them. We have to build them up in different stages as you would a model. 'There are different colours for different parts of the building. If there's a portice on the door we would do that separately then add other features like windows. 'It's neither a quick nor an easy process but we pride ourselves on offering beautiful and original chocolates for our consumers. 'A mould for something like a house can take two or three works and hard to do occasionally stopping for breaks.'

The family launched their company Chocolate on Chocolate five years ago and converted a barn at their home in Rode, Bath, into a chocolate factory. They started selling a range of just 12 chocolates at trade shows and quickly landed orders from upmarket shops such as Harrods.




Nicholas Cage commissioned a chocolate replica of his Somerset estate Midford Castle.

Inventor Kerr then designed a method of sculpting buildings using moulds made out of plastic.

He made replicas of the Town Bridge in Bradford-upon-Avon, Wiltshire, and the Devil's Bridge in Kendal, which were spotted by a member of Prince Charles' staff at a show three years ago.
Charles then commissioned a chocolate replica of Highgrove and his three-feathered Royal crest.



Landmark: Bristol shopping super centre Cribbs Causeway has been re-created in luxury chocolate.


He was so impressed he recently started selling them at The Highgrove Shop, which sells produce from the Prince's land near Tetbury and other local producers.

The Highgrove replica - 20cm x 10cm with 250g of chocolate - retails at £12 and the Royal crest - which is 10cm squared and uses 110g - is £6.

Making the chocolates takes up to three weeks starting with photographing the buildings and making several moulds and costs up to £2,000 per commission.



Intricate: Each replica takes three weeks to make using moulds with extra pieces intricately hand-carved for different parts of the building.

Giant machines spin gallons of different flavoured dark, milk, white and red chocolate which are poured into the moulds.

Extra pieces are then intricately hand-carved for different parts of the building.

The luxury treat business has boomed - now making 200 different products - and they now plan to expand into a factory four times the size including a chocolate cafe.

Graphic Designer Flo, 29, said: 'We started when I finished my degree and had a brief discussion about how cool it would be if I came up with some imaginative designs and then dad carved the moulds out of plaster. 'Dad has experience as an inventor and can carve amazingly intricate moulds and we just thought we'd give it a go.

'It's a dream come true to be surrounded by chocolate all the time. 'It's hard to resist eating the chocolate all the time because it smells so good, but I've got used to it.'